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You are here: Home / Themes / Insects / Ladybugs / Ladybug Math Game

Ladybug Math Game

By Shaunna Evans 12 Comments · This content may contain affiliate links.

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My girls love ladybugs. We’ve started spotting some in our yard recently, so I thought we’d have a little fun with a ladybug theme for this month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids. This ladybug math game can be adapted for toddlers, preschoolers, and children in early elementary school. It incorporates scooping, pouring, sensory play, and math.

Hands-On Ladybug Math Ideas for Kids-Counting, Addition, Comparing
FIND EVEN MORE LADYBUG IDEAS IN OUR PRINTABLE LADYBUG THEME LESSON PLANS.

The Virtual Book Club for Kids is reading books by Mem Fox this month.  Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug! was a perfect choice for my ladybug loving girls. Tinker especially loved hide and seek aspect of this book. She asked to reread the book over and over again, and each time she was just as excited to find the ladybug hiding on each page.

Yoohoo, Ladybug

Preparation

I decided to build on that enthusiasm with our own twist on a ladybug hide and seek game. To prepare the math game I placed split peas in a large bowl. Then I added ten small ladybug toys. If you don’t have any, you could also use red buttons or red glass gems to represent ladybugs.  I cut two leaf shapes out of green craft foam, and set everything out with a scoop and a tray.

Counting Math Game

Counting Ladybugs-Toddler and Preschool Math Activity

For kids learning to count and practicing one-to-one correspondence play a “scoop and seek” game. Get a big scoop from the large bowl and pour it into the tray. Then add the ladybugs to the leaf. Touch each ladybug while counting aloud.

Ladybug Counting Activity

You can either add the ladybugs back in each time, or keep them out and continue playing until you’ve found all of the ladybugs. Tinker loved this version.

Comparing Math Game

To practice comparing numbers, add another leaf so that there are two. This time the ladybugs from the first scoop to the first leaf and the ladybugs found in the second scoop to the second leaf. Compare the two numbers. Discuss math vocabulary like more, less, greater, fewer, as many as, and equal.

Comparing Numbers-Ladybug Math

Addition Math Game

Add a writing utensil and recording sheet of some sort to the comparing math game materials and you can practice recording addition sentences to go along with the activity. See how many different addition sentences kids can find.

Ladybug Addition Game for Kids

Playing with a Partner

Both the comparing and addition games work well with a partner. Each child can have their own leaf. As they each scoop and count they can either compare the amounts or develop an addition sentence to go along the amounts.

Ladybug Math Activity for Partners

You can also continue the ladybug math fun by practicing one more and one less with our free printable activity set here.

Number Sense Activity for Preschool and Kindergarten

MORE LADYBUG THEME FUN WITH PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

Preschool Ladybug Activities and Lesson Plans

GET YOUR LESSON PLANS

Preschool Ladybug  Theme Lesson Plans

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.

More interested in insect activities? Get a Full Week of Insect Theme Learning and Play

 

 

 

 

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Preschool Classroom Insect Theme Lesson Plans

More Fun with Ladybugs

Ladybug Small World and Art Activity

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Virtual Book Club for Kids

More Math and Science Activities with Fizz, Pop, Bang!

Fizz, Pop, Bang! Playful Science and Math Activities is designed to bring hands-on fun to math and science play. It’s full of engaging and powerful learning opportunities in math and science, shared through ideas that incorporate art, play, sensory learning and discovery, for a whole-brain approach.

It includes 40 educational projects and 20 printables including a set of build-your-own 3D shape blocks, engineering challenge cards and a range of math games.

Learn more about Fizz, Pop, Bang! or you can buy it now!

Buy Now-Fizz Pop Bang ebook with 40 projects for ages 3 to 8 and 20 free printable resources

 

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Filed Under: Book Related Activities, Insects, Ladybugs, Letter L, Math, Preschool, School Age, Virtual Book Club for Kids Tagged With: addition, comparing, counting, math

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Helene

    April 17, 2015 at 9:20 pm

    Love your ideas. I couldn’t help but notice your ladybugs have 5 spots on them, you could use them for counting by fives! Also, we have a collection of bottle caps – lots of red ones – I think I’ll go draw some spots on some with a Sharpie right now!

    Reply
  2. Rebecca

    May 31, 2014 at 4:36 am

    We love ladybirds. They are so cute. Great ideas for hands on maths.

    Reply
  3. Angie

    May 29, 2014 at 2:21 am

    Thanks for sharing this activity and breaking it down step by step. I am doing a ladybug themed week with my kids this summer and am looking for math activities relating to ladybugs. I would love to know where you found the little plastic ladybugs?

    Reply
    • Shaunna Evans

      May 30, 2014 at 2:49 pm

      Hi Angie! My small ladybugs are from an Instant Learning Center by Lakeshore Learning Materials. I am not sure if they carry it anymore though. I didn’t see an active link when I looked while preparing this post. You might use red glass gems or even red foam circles to make your own inexpensive version–or even let the kids make their own set of ladybugs. They’ll love them even more!

      Reply
  4. Amber

    May 21, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    I LOVE this! And what perfect timing as the ladybugs seem to be out in full force here these days 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing on Mom’s Library last week! This is one of my features this week.

    Reply
    • Shaunna Evans

      May 22, 2014 at 1:36 pm

      Thank you, Amber!

      Reply
  5. AmieJo

    May 20, 2014 at 2:34 pm

    I love the ideas, sensory and math how great. The book looks like it would be fun. I think my son would also love to find the ladybug even if he read it 10 times. I did a ladybug project with my son you daughters might like. We made some really cut ladybugs out of saltdough. They turn out to be very cute. I had made them into magnets for the fridge and planned on doing some math with them. I want to thank you because now I can use your math ideas for my ladybugs. I even have the pees already.

    Reply
    • Shaunna Evans

      February 1, 2020 at 5:51 am

      So glad you like the idea! Your ladybug activity sounds like something my daughters would love too!

      Reply
  6. Anna@The Measured Mom

    May 17, 2014 at 8:28 pm

    Thanks for sharing how a sensory bin can be used for math learning. Great stuff! Thanks also for sharing it at After School. 🙂

    Reply
  7. Betsy @ BPhotoArt

    May 16, 2014 at 8:15 am

    Cute game!! I’m going to pin this for my son 🙂

    Reply
  8. Dianna @ The Kennedy Adventures

    May 13, 2014 at 8:55 am

    So fun! I love the themed ideas!

    Thanks for linking up with The Thoughtful Spot! I look forward to seeing more of your great homeschooling ideas!

    Reply
  9. Sandi

    May 12, 2014 at 10:31 am

    I had not discovered this Mem Fox book. Thanks for the introduction. Pinned.

    Reply

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